Dark and Dank

But Maddie and Becca brightened things up.  Becca’s school Christmas show was a lively affair.

Then come evening, Mimi went with Maddie to gymnastics practice while I, disappointed at not being able to go along, went to the local Democratic party communication committee meeting I had agreed to attend. After driving to Elkhorn, I stood outside the locked office for 10 minutes until the committee chairwoman showed up. Since she had no key, we stood together for a while—until I went and got the truck and parked in an open slot in front. We sat there, in relative warmth, for another while until a third person tried the office door (and found it still locked). Then the three of us went for coffee at the nearby Elk restaurant. Few in numbers, we had a nice chat, and then the chairwoman informed the two new recruits that she had previously quit the committee, and things would be reorganized in the new year.

And to think I could have gone to gymnastics

Measurable rain last night, and then mist and drizzle all day.

Luncheon With Becca

Right after school to Roots for mac & cheese, a little hot chocolate, and a Krispie treat. And LOTS of conversation. Then, on the way home, a stop at Fowler Park.

Technically a warm day with temps in the mid 40s, but because of an insistent wind it felt chilly.

Aside

Here’s a riddle pun posted by Kagawong. Singing can help solve it.  

Microbes

Now for the Tangled Tree.  

CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is a remarkable technology that makes genetic engineering relatively easy. With it you can edit DNA, and snip out a gene that otherwise would cause a genetic disease. And, if you do it at the right time, you can actually strip the genetic problem out of not just one individual but of all succeeding generations. That’s not all, of course. Designer babies are now possible. But, what I want is a fungus-proof American chestnut.

This remarkable capability was built off a genetic capability evolved by prokaryotes—bacteria and archaea–to ward off the attacks of viruses somewhere between 2 and 3 billion years ago.

So…now that we are speaking of prokaryotes, that’s pretty much what The Tangled Tree is all about. There is a main character in the book, a person who appears (in the midst of all the science) in Chapter 1 all the way through Chapter 84, and who provides the narrative thread. That person is Carl Woese, at the University of Illinois.

He‘s the guy who discovered that there are not just two branches of all life, but three—bacteria, yes; eukaryotes, yes; AND also archaea. Woese was a pioneer in gene sequencing. Anyone even remotely connected with the field is also connected to him and to Champaign/Urbana Illinois.

Here are a few interesting factoids.:

• No animal could live without its microbiome—bacteria in the gut.
• Bacteria rule planet Earth. Every other creature is just an asterisk.
• If you weigh the average human, somewhere between 4 to 6 pounds of that weight is bacteria.
•The mitochondria inside all living cells are actually bacteria who invaded billions of years ago (Endosymbiosis).
• Chloroplasts (the photosynthesizers) in all green plants are also bacterial invaders.
• Evolution is not just linear, descending down form generation to generation. Horizontal gene transfer has played a major role in evolution (and still continues to do so).
• Actually, what matters—what evolution has done—is to create many thousands of genes, each capable of of some amazing accomplishment. Individuals, and even species, are just collections of various genes. You need something…there’s a gene for that.
• Life is amazing.

The book is good too.

The Tangled Tree

My plan was to review a book of this name today, but a multitude of other endeavors and distractions interfered. So that’s on tomorrow’s agenda. 

Instead, here are a few burr oaks.  

The distractions included a walk in the prairie, tanking up at the flowing well, finishing off the new Nite trailer, working out, and getting a noggin trim. Also prepping a bit of supper. 

Yes, Palindromes

And the idea to bring up palindromes comes from a book just completed that discusses, among other things: clustered, regularly interspaced, short. palindromic repeats. But no time for that now since today’s topic has to be bbq ribs for dinner at the Nies household. More on CRISPR tomorrow.

Days Too Short

To Madison in the morning to visit Jane, our across-the-street neighbor, in hospital (she is doing better). Then late lunch at Old Fashioned (when in Madison…) and back home with just enough light left to finish up the trailer. Pleasant, windless, sunny day, though cool. Hope it stays this way another day, so the paint will dry. Then colder would be okay.

Okay, so, below are two statements, and the question is—what kind of strange thing do they represent?

“A Santa dog lived as a devil god at NASA.” and “Madam, in Eden, I’m Adam.” Comment to answer.

Foggy Morn

But sunny and mild by afternoon. Weekend iceboating called off—no local ice, and with light winds and soft surface forecast, a two hour drive north is not that appealing

On the up side, the new trailer wiring harness actually works. When I bought the kit I thought I was buying one with a real ground wire running to each light. Turns out I was wrong, and had to ground to the trailer, which, on an older and somewhat corroded one, can be a real pain.

The photo below is pretty much self-explanatory, but does illustrate how the ideas of responsibility for one’s actions, respect for others, neighborliness, concern for the environment, etc. do not penetrate too deeply into the minds of a certain group of people.

Nobody Likes Pears...

...at least not Bradford pears.  

Vi has one growing right along the wall between us and her. Maybe 20, 25 years old, and quite tall.

What I don’t like about it is that the waxy leaves seem designed to clog gutters, and they don’t drop until well into December when gutter cleaning is painful if not impossible Then, once the leaves are down, the little spherical fruits rain down creating more litter. Another sign of badness is the fact that no wild animal will touch the fruit. While Vi’s flowering crab is consumed ravenously by voracious hordes, nobody can stomach a Bradford. if you don’t believe me, read this: “The Curse of The Bradford Pear.”

We attended the monthly meeting of the Democratic Party of Walworth County this evening, in Elkhorn. Sizable crowd of interesting* and very friendly people. Maybe we will be doing a bit of volunteer something or other with them.

*The people in any new crowd usually look unusual until you get to know them.

So Much For That...

...Ice. The beautiful, black glass has been defiled.

Light snow overnight, not much, but enough to derail iceboating plans. And now, freezing rain, making walking treacherous. Got some trailer work done though, so hope springs eternal.

Belated Hall Decking

While it’s true that the goose is still getting fat, it has seemed that Xmas here has already been dealt with.

But no. Yes, the gifts have been given and a party had, but it’s still the season. And today Mimi put the decks up (in addition to cleaning the basement). Great merriment yet awaits.

And, all I did is work on the trailer, walk the dog, and cook dinner.

Watch The Trailer...

 ...it could need work. 

Actually, the new trailer is a bit on the old side, and the back panel of the accessory box has proved to be rotten. Along with that, the metal frame needed wire brushing followed by Rustoleumizing. And, as always, a new wiring harness is required. What could be more fun than projects like these?

Report from Oconomowoc says that Lac La Belle is absolutely flat, smooth, and black — perfect ice, thick enough to support shanties. Bri said it reminded him of the time on Crystal Lake when we skated on a newly formed, clear sheet while watching a muskrat swim below. Ice like this doesn’t come along every day, and it needs to be taken advantage of.

Also of note, I experienced a “eureka moment” regarding the old Keurig coffeemaker, and by gum the eureka was right. The clog was just where eureka said it would be, and was easily removed. So…the good, old, well-used coffee machine is going back into service tomorrow. Which means the new one (rather a lightweight) is going to be placed on the redundant list and assigned to the position of “standby.” Good place for it. Can/t forget that the Kagawong Keurig suffered a malfunction last summer and almost ended up at the Mall.

Boat Schlepping

Gotta schlep when there’s 4 boats. And sailable ice.

So now the boats, sails, booms, planks, masts, horses, toolkits, and the like, are pretty much organized and on the right trailers. Bri and I did this at the storage unit west of O’wock. Meanwhile, Sue spent a good part of the day in hospital in Madison, sitting with our across-the-street neighbor who recently had surgery. Odd yes, but who else would you want at your bedside?

Here are a few more photos of yesterday’s Xmas extravaganza. Photos by Renee.

And below that is a link to a great choral rendition of “White Christmas” brought to my attention by John.

U.S. Navy Band and Chorus…”White Christmas”

Happy Christmas

A notable party at the Janowiec’s in Fox Point. (More photos to follow.) 

Tent city. Five tents made from scratch by Mimi.

New chair for Ben. James has one that’s identical.

New theatre curtains in the basement…so of course a show!

Very festive decor, very tasty fare—king crab, steak, twice-baked potatoes, etc.

More twins.

What Were They Thinking?

Four iceboats?  Among three sailors? 

Nite 300 recently came on the market at a very attractive price. The boat has a successful racing record, appears to be in perfect condition, is very well equipped, and looks nice. Bri and I spent an hour trying to find something wrong with it, but were unsuccessful.

So that makes four boats in the Nies/Janowiec consortium. However, good old Number 10, Wombat, is now up for sale. While none of us is claiming that Wombat was the brightest purchase, we did our part in bringing her back from the brink of extinction.  And, while not the fastest steed in the stable, she is a fine craft, and will make someone very happy.

Also, it will be fun to see Nite 300 and Nite 351 side by side on the ice, and to speculate on which will win more races.

Winter Concert

Featuring Ellie singing and telling jokes.  “It was so cold that when I turned on the shower I got hail on the head.”

Frostbite...

...thanks to liquid nitrogen.  

Courtesy of the dermatologist.  Then, later in the afternoon, sorting through boxes of scrambled, thirty-something-year-old Lego Dacta Technic pieces and parts to see if a workable kit could be reconstituted. Some of the batteries were corroded, somewhat resembling my face.

With Christmas coming in 3 days, the pressure is on.

The Soviet State of Wisconsin

Democracy be damned.  

With the Republican party having lost Governor, Attorney General, and other state-wide offices, the losers are now pushing an anti-democratic, lame-duck power grab. Nothing subtle about it. Very Stalinesque. Because of extreme gerrymandering, vast sums of Koch money, Fox news and talk radio support, the Repubs still control the Wisconsin legislature. They are addicted to power, and a continuous supply of puppet-master money, and  they are now ready and willing to turn Wisconsin into a totalitarian oligarchy. Who cares what the voters want?

“Of, by, and for the people,” said President Lincoln. Screw that, say Vos and Fitzgerald.

I wonder if Gerry and Mander, and all the other rural Wisconsin rednecks, are going to like living in a totalitarian oligarchy. Maybe. There will be no need to vote. Also no need to think. The benevolent overlords will do that for them and then tell them what to put on their yard signs.

Way out in right field it's all about hierarchy, patriarchy, and privilege, slinging guns and thumping bibles. And if the Repubs can keep them folks resentful and scared it might be time to move to Moscow.

The Day That Got Away

One of those days when……  Big blocks of time spent wrassling the old Keurig coffeemaker, trying to convince it that it was not yet deceased. Unfortunately, in spite of my many ministrations, mortality proved to be the case. Of course, replacing it is such sweet sorrow, seeing as Keurig has as many slightly differentiated models as Garmin does GPS units.

On the up side, I made a batch of Wild Rice Casserole from the recipe (slightly enhanced) from the good old Family Tree Cookbook (compiled in 2005 by Ruthie and Niki.) The casserole just came out of the oven, and it looks delightful, and smells ever better.

Nice Mice

One in particular. Katy gave a standout performance in an elaborate production of the Nutcracker. Bri brought Becca, Maddie, and Ellie to be part of the fun.